The journey to Stonehaven was a slow, awkward shuffle through a world that felt both breathtakingly real and utterly alien. Borin, leaning heavily on his daughter Elara, set the pace. Kaito walked beside them, the infinite power within him humming like a contained star, yet his steps felt clumsy, his tongue thick with the familiar paralysis of social interaction.
He'd stored the salvaged goods effortlessly – sacks of grain, crates of tools, even Borin's ruined cart frame vanished into his `Inventory` with a thought, leaving only the dead horses behind. Each disappearance elicited a gasp or a muttered prayer from Borin, while Elara's wide, intelligent eyes tracked Kaito with a mixture of awe and intense curiosity that made his non-existent sweat glands wish they existed.
"So... Kaito," Elara began, her voice cutting through the forest sounds amplified in Kaito's ears. "From 'far away'. What was it like? Are there forests like these? Cities?" Her gaze was direct, unnerving.
Kaito fumbled for words. *Earth? Skyscrapers? Internet? Data entry?* "It... it was different. Very different. Taller buildings. More... noise. Metal carriages that moved without horses." He saw their baffled expressions. "And no magic. Not like here, anyway." *Unless you count microwave ovens,* he thought wryly.
"No magic?" Borin grunted, shifting his weight. "Hard to imagine. Magic's woven into everything here, lad. From the hearth-fire charms to the King's battle-mages. Even frontier outposts like Stonehaven have a hedge-witch or a retired warmage." He glanced sidelong at Kaito. "Though none I've heard of who can... store whole carts in thin air. Or shrug off steel."
Kaito felt the familiar heat rise in his cheeks. "It's not... *my* magic. Not exactly. It's... part of the package." He tapped his temple vaguely. "Comes with instructions I didn't ask for."
`<< Absolute Comprehension Activated: Analyzing local mana flow patterns. Ambient levels: Low. Faint traces of elemental (Earth/Wood) and minor healing resonance detected. No active hostile signatures. >>` The system supplied unhelpful data, overlaying his vision with shimmering, almost invisible lines of energy flowing through the trees and earth.
"Instructions?" Elara pressed, her curiosity undimmed. "From the Divines? Like the Chosen Heroes of legend?"
Kaito nearly choked. *Chosen? More like cosmic consolation prize.* "Not... Divines. More like... a very annoyed administrator." He pictured Aurelia's starlit smirk. "She called it 'compensation'." He couldn't bring himself to explain *for what*.
Borin chuckled, a pained but genuine sound. "An annoyed administrator blessing you with the strength of ten giants and the storage space of a dragon's hoard? Sounds like my old quartermaster." He grew serious. "Be careful with that word, lad. 'Compensation'. Sounds like a debt paid. Folks might wonder what debt *you* owed, or what was taken from you to earn such power."
The warning landed heavily. Kaito hadn't considered that angle. His power, absurd as it was, could be seen as transactional, ominous. `<< TITLE: The Apex Virgin >>` pulsed faintly in his awareness. *Yeah, definitely not sharing that part.*
As they walked, Kaito experimented subtly. He focused on a pebble on the path. `<< Store. >>` It vanished. `<< Retrieve. >>` It reappeared in his palm. Easy. He tried a fallen branch. Same. Then, trying to be helpful, he reached out to steady Borin as the man stumbled on a root. His touch was feather-light, guided by `Absolute Comprehension` knowing exactly where and how much pressure to apply. Yet, the sheer, unthinking strength behind it was terrifying. He felt the fragile bones and tendons in Borin's arm, the rush of blood beneath the skin. It was like handling spun glass with hands made of granite. One wrong twitch...
He pulled his hand back quickly. "Sorry!"
Borin patted his arm, though his eyes held a flicker of that primal fear again. "No harm done, lad. Just... maybe warn an old man before you grab him, eh? Feels like being caught in a bear trap set by a gentle giant."
Kaito winced. *Gentle giant. Right.* He needed control. Not just over the cosmic powers, but over the simple, human act of *touching*. He spent the next hour hyper-aware of his own movements, placing his feet with exaggerated care, keeping his hands clasped firmly behind his back. It was exhausting.
Elara watched him, a thoughtful frown on her face. "Does it... hurt? The power?"
Kaito blinked. "Hurt? No. It's just... *there*. All the time. Like... like hearing your own heartbeat, but it's the heartbeat of a mountain. Or seeing every single leaf on every tree, all at once." He sighed. "It's loud. And quiet at the same time. And trying to... *be* normal... feels like trying to thread a needle while wearing oven mitts." The analogy spilled out, surprisingly apt.
A small, understanding smile touched Elara's lips. "Oven mitts. I like that." It was the first genuine warmth she'd shown him that wasn't overshadowed by fear or awe. Kaito felt a strange flutter in his chest, entirely unrelated to infinite mana pools.
---
Stonehaven emerged from the forest like a scar on the landscape. It wasn't a city, barely a town – a rough-hewn wooden palisade surrounding a chaotic jumble of log buildings, thatched roofs, and muddy streets churned by hooves and boots. Smoke hung low in the cool afternoon air, carrying the smells of woodsmoke, unwashed humanity, animals, and something vaguely metallic. Sentries in worn leather armor and dented helms manned the open gate, eyeing newcomers with weary suspicion.
As they approached, Kaito felt dozens of eyes upon them. Whispers started, rustling through the crowd like dry leaves. He heard snippets with his enhanced hearing:
"...Borin's back early..."
"...looks like trouble... Elara looks pale..."
"...who's the stranger? Looks soft... clothes too simple..."
"...no cart? Horses gone? Raiders?"
Borin squared his shoulders, projecting a confidence Kaito knew was frayed at the edges. "Hail, Joric!" he called to a grizzled sentry with a thick grey beard. "Ran into some trouble on the West Road. Blacktooth's lot, we reckon."
Joric spat. "Garv and his mangy curs? Hurt bad, Borin?" His sharp eyes flicked to the bandage, then to Kaito, lingering.
"Aye, a cut. Would've been worse if not for Kaito here." Borin gestured to him. "Saved our skins and what goods we had left."
All eyes snapped to Kaito. The scrutiny was intense, physical. He felt like a bug under a magnifying glass. `<< Presence Concealment (Toggle - MAX): Can render oneself utterly undetectable by any means when desired. >>` The option tempted him. He could vanish, slip past this suffocating attention. *But that's what Kevin would do.* He forced himself to meet Joric's gaze, giving a stiff, awkward nod. "Kaito."
Joric's eyes narrowed, assessing. "Kaito, eh? From where?"
"Far away," Kaito repeated his mantra, his voice sounding too flat, too calm in the tense atmosphere.
"Didn't see no horse," another sentry muttered, eyeing Kaito's simple, unmarked boots suspiciously.
"He walked," Elara interjected, her voice firm. "And he carried the salvaged goods." She looked at Kaito expectantly.
*Right. The show.* Kaito took a breath. He focused on a clear spot just inside the gate. Mentally, he reached into the `Inventory`. One by one, the sacks of grain, the crates of tools, and finally, the heavy, broken cart frame, materialized silently out of thin air, settling onto the muddy ground with soft thuds.
The effect was instantaneous. Gasps rippled through the gathered onlookers. Men crossed themselves. Women clutched amulets. Joric took a step back, his hand instinctively going to the hilt of his sword. The whispers exploded:
"...Spatial magic!..."
"...no chant! No focus stone!..."
"...just... appeared!..."
"...warlock?..."
"Told you," Borin said, a note of grim satisfaction in his voice, though he kept a wary eye on the crowd. "Part of his... compensation package." He stressed the word, letting its ambiguity hang.
Joric stared at the materialized goods, then back at Kaito, his expression unreadable. "Right," he finally grunted. "Get Borin to Martha the Stitch-Witch, Elara. That cut needs proper seeing to. Stranger... Kaito. The Captain'll want words. Soon." It wasn't a request.
As Elara guided her father deeper into the muddy chaos of Stonehaven, Kaito stood alone for a moment, surrounded by the material proof of his impossible power and the heavy weight of fearful, suspicious stares. The whispers swirled around him like a physical thing: "Spatial mage..." "Unbreakable, Garv said..." "Shattered steel..." "Monster in man's skin..."
He saw a group of particularly rough-looking men near a tavern called "The Gored Boar" watching him intently. One, with a crude tattoo of a black talon on his cheek, spat into the mud, his eyes hard. The Black Talons. Garv's warning had arrived first.
Kaito took a deep breath. The scent of smoke, mud, and fear filled his lungs. *Welcome to Stonehaven,* he thought grimly. *Try not to break anything.* He followed Elara and Borin, acutely aware that his journey from awkward virgin to potential threat had just taken a very public, very complicated turn. The overpowered outsider had arrived, and Stonehaven wouldn't forget it.